Southwestern Chicken Pizza with Chipotle Cream Cheese Sauce Recipe

Every Friday night at our house brings great excitement for my boys. Pizza night ranges from standards, such as pepperoni and Hawaiian, to slightly more adventurous versions, such as Thai chicken or grilled shrimp and pesto. Southwestern or Mexican pizzas have crossed our pizza stone several times, but the flavor combination has never been quite right. We were missing a good kick of heat and a sauce that would stand up to the chicken, black beans, corn, red bell pepper and queso fresco cheese that we like to pile on top.Philadelphia Cream Cheese recently introduced a new product, called Cooking Creme. It has the same flavor of cream cheese, but can be easily spooned and melted into a variety of dishes. While the Cooking Creme is available in a southwestern flavor, I prefer to add the flavors according my own palate, so I used the original flavor as a starting point. I heated a small amount of vegetable broth and melted the cooking creme into the broth to make a thinner sauce. Stirring in minced chipotle peppers, a small amount of adobo sauce and fresh lime juice gave the sauce that tangy kick we were craving. What did my boys think? They went back for thirds. I think that says it all.

Head over to Kraft’s Real Women of Philadelphia site to find more pizza recipes using Cooking Creme. While you’re over there, think about entering the contest for a chance to travel to Savannah, Georgia for a cook-off and win $25,000.

The recipe:

The sauce:
In a small saucepan set over medium heat, bring vegetable stock to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in Philadelphia Cooking Creme (regular flavor) until it dissolved. Add chopped chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, fresh lime juice, and a pinch of salt.

The pizza:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Place pizza stone in oven and preheat for 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pizza dough until it is about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a pizza peel covered with cornmeal. Spread chipotle sauce over the pizza dough. Sprinkle black beans, corn, red bell pepper and queso fresco cheese evenly over the sauce.

Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and bake for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chicken over the pizza and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Garnish with cilantro. Serve. Drizzle with remaining chipotle sauce, if desired.

Sauce:
In a small saucepan set over medium heat, bring vegetable stock to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in Philadelphia Cooking Creme until it dissolved. Add chopped chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, fresh lime juice, and a pinch of salt.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pizza dough (link to dough recipe) until it is about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a pizza peel covered with cornmeal. Spread 3/4 cup of the chipotle sauce over the pizza dough. Sprinkle black beans, corn, red bell pepper and queso fresco cheese evenly over the sauce.

Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and bake for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chicken over the pizza and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Garnish with cilantro. Serve. Drizzle with remaining chipotle sauce, if desired.

I love Friday night as pizza night!! It was a tradition in our house until sports became the Friday night activity. Hopefully, it will return this summer though and when it does, this will be one of the first pizzas I will make!!

Love the idea of a more spreadable cream cheese so will definitely be on the lookout for this in my local market!

I’ll be on the look out for this creme. Sounds fabulous and so versatile. I have several recipes where I used to warm the cream cheese and add milk to make a sauce. This would be the perfect substitute.

Yum!
I tried to make mac ‘n cheese last night with chipotle, but I found the chunks didn’t dissolve and stain the whole mess orange like I wanted it to. Next time I will use this cooking cream! Thanks 🙂

I love this! The flavors are right up my alley….and I just bought some of that cooking creme to try out – I just haven’t decided exactly what to do with it yet! Thanks for the great pizza idea and the links!

Dara—I just made this for dinner (with a few minor adaptations), but it was SO good! Thanks! (It was a little spicy for me, wish I would have only put in half an adobo pepper, but my husband likes things really spicy.) I used ground turkey breast and didn’t have queso, so I just used a mixture of cheddar and mozz.

This was delicious! I used an 8 oz container or regular cream cheese with 1/4 c veggie broth and it melted perfectly. Also omitted the beans and added fresh spinach and red onion. Very tasty and a nice twist on pizza. The cream sauce was enough for me to make 3 medium size pizzas.